Globally, for all of the European countries within XiTi’s study, the use rate for Firefox increased from 23.2% to 24.1% between the week of November 20 to 26, 2006 (see our prior study) and the week of March 5 to 11, 2007. The Czech Republic achieved the greatest increase in points: from 26.7% to 31.5% (i.e. +4.8 points for Firefox’ use rate), and as a percentage: +18%. Among the 30 European countries studied below, the rate of five decreased in relation to November 2006: Hungary (–3.9 points), Denmark (-1.7 points), Estonia (-1 point), Holland (-0.7 point) and Italy (-0.5 point).

Slovenia still leads the European countries with its use rate rising significantly: 44.5% for the week of March 5 to 11, 2007, i.e. +4 points versus the week of November 20 to 26, 2006. Finland maintains its second place (+2 points) and Croatia comes in third with a rate of 36.5% (+3.7 points), followed by Germany and Slovakia.

The use rate for Firefox in France (22.3%) still remains lower than that for Europe, but is experiencing a strong increase: +8% versus +4%. Even greater growth in Spain: the use rate increased by 2 points from 13.7% to 15.7%.

Global Trend

Oceania continues to lead over Europe in its Firefox use rate.

With the greatest increase in points (+1.4 points), Firefox in Oceania achieved a use rate of 24.8% for the week of March 5 to 11, 2007 and passes in front of Europe with 24.1%. Firefox gained ground on the other continents (North America, Africa and South America), except in Asia, where its rate remains stable and thus joins up with South America.

Like Europe, the Firefox use rate from one country to another on a single continent may vary significantly. For example, in Africa (rate of 13.1% for the week of March 5 to 11, 2007), Firefox is used twice more often in Tunisia than in Morocco and Algeria:

The use of Firefox keeps growing around the world and in March 2007 became the browser selected for close to one visit out of four in European countries.

So what about the "browser war": how was Version 2 of Firefox developed in light of Explorer 7? Visit our Monitor study to find out more on the latest trends …

Methodology :

The use rate for Firefox corresponds to all Firefox visits for the period in relation to all browser visits combined.

In this study, the indicator for a continent is intended to be representative of the countries audited in that continent. This indicator is an average of the country indicators. Therefore, the behavior of a country that generates few visits is considered equitably in relation to the behavior of its continent.